


Love and Death

by Jeanvalvernairdienjoleponius



Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: Background Carey and Killian, Background Lup and Barry, Canon Compliant, M/M, Series of Vignettes, Tooth Rotting Fluff, gets pretty existential for a bit but then I calm down
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-25
Updated: 2019-09-25
Packaged: 2020-10-27 21:08:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,386
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20766968
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jeanvalvernairdienjoleponius/pseuds/Jeanvalvernairdienjoleponius
Summary: “My dear Kravitz, you are so very warm. What has produced this change in you?”Kravitz tensed, unsure of what to say. “It’s… well, I can’t quite be sure, but I think it’s… there’s an, an elf, in the material plane, one of the ones from the Day of Story and Song, and he…”“So it’s, love, then.” She smiled.





	Love and Death

**Author's Note:**

> Minor content warning for getting somewhat existential.

Kravitz had noticed it for the first time on The Day of Story and Song. Sure, he’d run to see Taako, and yes, he’d warmed up his face beforehand to make sure that it wouldn’t be too uncomfortable an experience, but something had happened that day that he hadn’t expected.

He’d been warm. 

He’d caught sight of Taako, looking like his radiant usual self, and he’d felt a blush creeping up his face. Once Taako had let down his spell and shown his true appearance, he’d felt it spread. 

This was a sensation that he hadn’t felt in… well, he didn’t really know how long. He’d grown so used to the coldness of his skin that the warmth he started to feel when he was with Taako was rather alarming, if he were to be perfectly honest.

He’d heard a fantastic story about Taako as he was trying to reach the elf he so dearly cared for, something so bizarre and mysterious that he could barely believe it, something so impossible that he was almost afraid to ask. Yet, when he thought of Taako, of the adventure he’d taken, and of the fact that, of everyone in this world, the explorer, one of the saviors of this planar system and any others that would have come after, had chosen him, he felt his heart start to beat. Whether it normally did that or not, he couldn’t tell, but every time he thought of Taako he began to feel warmer. 

The Night of Story and Song, as Taako called it, had been unbearably hot.

In more ways than one, of course.

And not in the way that you might think, or the way that Taako might embellish it. Saving the world was an exhausting business, even when you discover the secret of tacos or have several helpers assisting in your job for the Raven Queen. Neither of them had been able to see one another the real night of, nor the night after that. Rather, it had taken almost a week for things to finally calm down enough in the Astral Plane for Kravitz to even attempt to seek out Taako. 

Once he had, he realized he hadn’t quite thought out this plan too well.

See, he was well aware that Taako lived on the moon base. He’d been to Taako’s room, and he knew that he shared it with Merle and Magnus, meaning that they wouldn’t have any privacy.

Taako had seen him, had literally laughed in his face, and had slammed the door in front of him. As Kravitz felt another blush, this one more from shame than anything else, start to form on his face, he saw the door open again as Merle and Magnus walked out of the room, holding a set of pajamas for themselves and grumbling, though it was clear that the both of them were quite pleased.

Taako had given him a cheeky grin, a chaste kiss that left him wanting more, and the offer of a rather luxurious bed.

_Still clammy as all fuck, my dude_, Taako had commented, and though Kravitz could’ve explained that he wasn’t clammy as _all _fuck as much as he was clammy as _most _fuck, he let it slide as he fell facefirst onto the bed.

_ Also, dunno if it really changes anything for you, but it’s really weird to try and make out with someone if his face is, you know, a skull? _

Well, shit. Turns out, working every hour of the day for several days in a row tends to make someone tired. Kravitz had shifted himself back into a more physically pleasing form while Taako, kinder than he’d ever care to admit, had worked on cooking them a fantastic dinner out of the brand new food he’d discovered, tacos, while Kravitz recanted everything that had happened with him over the past few days. 

Taako, naturally, had laughed and countered his story with a story of his own: the story of a century of travel. A sister he’d forgotten, so many families he’d met, planets he’d found, people he’d saved, foods he’d found, and, most importantly, the family he’d gained.

It made Kravitz feel lonely in a way he’d be ashamed to express. 

It also made him feel entirely inferior. 

These were people that Taako had known for a hundred years. He’d started to write down all the cycles that he could remember, just so that he could, in his own words,  _ write a tell-all tale of Taako and get fat stacks. _ Even then, it was intimidating to have to compete, not only with everyone else in the world to date this being who had done so much for their world, but also with the family that Taako had, until then, forgotten.

Of course, all was forgotten when dinner had been finished. Taako had chided him for thinking that he’d ever even consider dating  _ any of those losers on the Starblaster, not Nerdlord 1.0, not capnport, not Big Beefy, and especially not the old man.  _

Looking back on it, it should’ve been pretty obvious that Taako wasn’t too interested in anyone else from the Starblaster, but Kravitz wasn’t really too used to someone being romantically interested in him, the personification of death, so he could probably call it even. 

Taako had punished him for even daring to imagine thinking about the possibility that he could ever be interested in them by smothering him in kisses. Kravitz was almost too exhausted to respond to that in any way, but Taako had clearly been waiting on this for a while.

Somehow, impossibly, he started to feel sensation in every place that Taako touched. It started with pressure, then warmth, then a sizzling heat. 

It was more than he could bear.

“Taako, what is that?”

Taako pulled away, giving him a puzzled look. “The fuck are you talking about? You’re gonna have to be a little more specific, my guy.”

“I mean, it feels like I’m on fire. Well, no, maybe more like I’m sizzling?”

Taako burst out laughing, nearly doubling over before he realized that Kravitz didn’t get the joke.

“You’re sizzling it up with Taako, baby! Isn’t that what you meant?”

Kravitz shook his head, placing a hand up to his own face and feeling the heat under his skin. He could feel his heart start to beat, which was still quite the strange sensation. 

“Not quite, no. I meant that… well, typically I don’t really  _ physically  _ feel anything.”

Taako gave him a blank look.

“What I mean is, whenever I’ve touched things in this state in the past, it felt like nothing. Pressure, at most. Even when I was touching living people, it felt like nothing. Maybe I sent a chill through them, but it never affected me.”

“Go on.” Taako smiled, causing Kravitz to flush once more. It was certainly a feeling he could get used to.

“And, er, well, whenever I’m touched by you, it feels… different. Warmer. Softer. I  _ feel  _ it in a way that I don’t feel anything. It’s uncomfortably hot, but it’s still quite… nice.”

Taako smirked. “I always knew I was uncomfortably hot, muchacho, but it’s nice to get audible proof. And besides, if you think that’s uncomfortably hot, just wait until I get going. You’ll take back your words in no time.” 

Turns out, Taako was right. He’d joined Kravitz in bed for a cuddle, and the feeling of Taako’s body pressed against his was hotter than anything he’d felt in who knows how long. 

It was also, by far, the happiest he’d been in that same time.

* * *

“He’s a real sap, you know,” Commented a voice behind Kravitz. He flinched and turned to face a Lup, grinning widely.

“Excuse me?”

“My brother. He’s spent so much time trying to carve a name for himself because he wants to feel special. Guess I can’t do everything for him, or whatever, it’s fine. Anyways, he always wants to be treated like a prince or something. Give him something, he’ll eat it up. Doesn’t have to be food, though, to clarify. Doubt you could give him anything he can’t already make, and make better.” 

“And you mention this why?” Kravitz countered, barely looking up from a map detailing his next orders.

“I don’t want you two getting together just because he’s his plane’s most eligible bachelor and you’re this plane’s most eligible bachelor. You have to prove your worth to date someone as cool as my brother—don’t tell him I said that, or I’ll kill you.” 

Kravitz chuckled softly, closing up his map and glancing around him. 

He was surrounded by the austere beauty of the Raven Queen’s court, the dark splendor of onyx and speckled marble that he’d, up until quite recently, called his home. There were countless offerings to the Raven Queen here that he wouldn’t dare touch—dazzling gems, beautiful death masks, dozens of sarcophagi—but there were a few things here that perhaps, with the Raven Queen’s favor, he could bring to Taako. 

He crouched down below a small, carefully manicured pile of flowers. They were lifeless, dull, devoid of all their former beauty, but they were all Kravitz could seem to find on such short notice. 

And, of course, now that Taako had been mentioned, Kravitz would be able to think of nothing else until they were to meet again.

He tossed a collection of feathers in front of him, his fastest way of contacting the Raven Queen at short notice. She appeared in front of him in a flash, a kind and faint smile on her lips. 

“What do you need, Kravitz?” 

He glanced down at the flowers and then up at her, mouth moving but unable to form the words he needed. He flushed, embarrassed.

“My my my, Kravitz, how you’ve changed in the past few months. If I didn’t know any better, I’d say you were…” She gently brushed her fingers down his cheek, a shocked expression appearing on her face.

“My dear Kravitz, you are so very warm. What has produced this change in you?”

Kravitz tensed, unsure of what to say. “It’s… well, I can’t quite be sure, but I think it’s… there’s an, an elf, in the material plane, one of the ones from the Day of Story and Song, and he…”

“So it’s, love, then.” She smiled.

“I—er, well, I don’t quite know about, er,” Kravitz spluttered. “I don’t know if it’s love. I did say that I loved him, certainly, but that was after being trapped for weeks and being saved by him, it was spur of the moment, it… you may have a point.”

The Raven Queen smiled down at him, placing a hand on his shoulder. “The trouble with offerings to me is that they are so often tributes to a relative who has passed away. Or, perhaps, for someone that they fear may die soon in the future. Those offerings, I cannot give up. Surely you can understand. My followers, the devotees—you know them well, my dear Kravitz—give a specific set of items dedicated to me. But sometimes, every once in a while, a beautiful soul will place a flower on the grave of someone they do not know, send an offering to me simply as reverence to the beauty of life. Those gifts are precious to me, as I’m sure they will be precious to you.” She picked up a handful of flowers, handing them to him.

“If these are so important to you, why are you giving them to me, my Queen?”

“Death and love, Kravitz. Without love, death means nothing. Without death, love means nothing. It’s a beautiful cycle. Without love, if someone died, they would simply move on without any ceremony. It would just be a fact of life. One day someone would be alive, the next day they would not, but it would not… change anything, it would not help people grow. Without death, you could love someone, but it would not mean anything, as there would be no chance to lose them to something other than them growing tired of you. With death, love is a beautiful, tragic, wonderful thing. Treasure it, Kravitz. Treasure both. They are both so, so dear to me.” She pressed the flowers into his hands. 

He took the flowers, deeply bowing to show how much it meant to him. “My Queen, I… cannot say how kind you are to me. I owe you so much. Thank you. Endlessly.”

She bowed back, disappearing in a flash of black feathers. 

Kravitz did the same.

* * *

“Oh, dope! Goth flowers!” Taako smiled.

* * *

Kravitz has popped into this particular room more times than he ever could have counted, but this time in particular was off.

“Hello, sir!” Greeted a child who was standing in the doorframe. 

He just so happened to have walked into their house at the absolute worst time: the moment Kravitz returned, still in his grim reaper form.

The boy locked eyes with Kravitz and immediately proceeded to start crying. “N-no, I’m too young to die, I can’t… I’m only a boy! I’m just a boy and I’m a detective and I just, w-wanted to say hello to Taako, a-a-and,” He put his hands out in front of him.

Taako laughed, walking over to the boy and wiping the tears away. “No worries, my dude! He’s here for me!” He explained with a smile.

That was certainly the wrong answer. The boy tilted his head back and started positively wailing, going down on his knees and begging for Taako’s life. 

“P-please, sir, you can’t take Taako away from me, I still have so many wizardly magicks to learn from him and we just saved the world and we’ve been through s-so much and he j-just started being nice to me and, and, please don’t take him!!”

“Aha… ha. Well, Ango, you have nothing to worry about, as he’s already taken me, if you catch my drift. You get the wrong idea about us. Or, about him. He’s… I've been dancing with death, I suppose. We’re totes dating.”

The boy—Ango?—inhaled sharply, turning to hug Taako and bury his face in his robes. “Oh thank goodness, sir, I was so worried about you! I’m so glad that you aren’t going to die today, I’m… I don’t even want to think about what could’ve happened.”

“Well… Kravitz, Angus. Angus, Kravitz. Kravitz, this is my… pupil? Annoying student? And, Angus, this is Kravitz, my boyfriend.” 

Kravitz felt a fiery heat under his skin as he was introduced in such a manner. His heart fluttered with joy as he let down his reaper form and took on his more typical form. He couldn’t fight off the smile that grew on his face as he stared at the most important man in his life. 

“Nice to meet you, Angus, er…”

“McDonald! World’s greatest detective.” He grinned, wiping off the last of his tears and walking towards Kravitz to shake hands.

“And yet, you still couldn’t figure out that we were dating and he wasn’t here to kill me.” Taako called from the other side of the room.

Kravitz shook Angus’s hand with that same smile, realizing with delight that he could feel his own pulse in addition to Angus’s. 

“Nice to meet you too, sir. And, if Taako loves you, then… I love you too, sir!” Angus grinned brightly. 

Kravitz pulled him into a hug. 

* * *

It had been a year since the Day of Story and Song, and Kravitz couldn’t have been happier with the way his life was nowadays. His job had been made significantly easier once the barriers between the realms had been turned back to normal, and almost every day was ended with a visit to Taako.

Today was different, though.

Today was a joyous occasion, enough that the Raven Queen had deigned to give him a well-earned day off, along with his two near-constant companions.

It had been well over a year that he’d been hopelessly in love with Taako, and it showed in everything he did. It especially showed in the fact that he was warm all the time now, warmer than the summer breeze and the world around him, warm enough to startle the souls that he was guiding into the astral plane, warm enough that Taako couldn’t make fun of him for being cold anymore.

He knew now that it was most certainly the strange and beautiful magic of love that had done this to him.

As death had made him cold, love had made him warm again. His capacity for emotion and reason had gone up as he surrounded himself with those who loved him.

Despite not having known Taako for nearly as long as Lup and Barry had, he’d managed to worm his way into their unique family, and for that he was ever grateful.

Today was one of the side effects of that fact.

He was dressed to the nines, in a suit even better than the one he’d first appeared to Taako in. Taako had loudly complained by his once more all-black aesthetic, but Kravitz could tell just how much he was into it. He caught Taako staring more than a few times, which was rather flattering. 

He’d even braved stealing a kiss or two in front of Lup, who always made sure to make fun of him for any sort of display of affection towards Taako that she saw. Kravitz had started to shy away from showing any sort of emotion in front of her, and only had recently stopped doing so when Barry had confronted him and informed him that that’s just how Lup is. 

Apparently, both Taako and Lup were very interesting when it came to the way they expressed their feelings.

It was most likely due to the way they grew up: unable to depend on anyone else. It was apparent that they needed one another more than anything else in the world, and Kravitz wasn’t jealous in any way, as that was the way they had been for well over a hundred years.

What did put him off, a little bit, was that, though Taako was very willing to give out physical tokens of affection, most of his audible affection was told via insults or jokes, which was a little bit discouraging.

After all, Kravitz had said  _ I love you  _ for the first time a year ago, and Taako hadn’t said it over the course of the year. 

Kravitz noticed that he’d been staring off into space when Taako sat next to him, and shook his head slightly as he looked Taako over once more.

“You look fantastic, babe.” He smiled.

“You too, babe.” Taako responded, sticking his tongue out as he tossed his fingers into a lazy peace sign. “But, I mean, is anyone really surprised that I look fantastic? Or…” His cheeks tinged with color as he looked away, if only for a moment. “Or that you do, either?”

Kravitz thought back to what Lup had said to him, all that time ago. “We’re our plane’s most eligible bachelors, after all.”

Taako gasped, mouth dropping as he feigned offense. “Babe? How can you say that we’re bachelors if we’re dating?”

Kravitz flushed at his words despite  _ knowing  _ that Taako was simply putting on one of his shows. Something about the way he spoke constantly left Kravitz on edge in the best possible way. 

“I, uh, I mean… I mean, we  _ were  _ the most eligible, uh, b-bachelors before, uh… before we made it official.”

“Good save. We can keep flirting later but right now I think it’s time for getting married, yknow?”

Neither of them really realized what Taako had said for a few seconds, and then both snapped to attention as they processed the words that had left his mouth.

“I-I mean,”

“Carey and Killian, or?”

“Shh!” Someone scolded from a few rows away, as Kravitz noticed that the brides were starting to approach one another. 

Kravitz, for the longest time, had been in the business of looking at someone and wondering when they would die. It wasn’t really his job to guide the souls into the Astral Plane, more hunting down ones that had gone astray, but over the years he had found himself quite capable of guessing when and how someone would die.

Taako and his friends had surprised him, for certain.

What surprised him more, however, was the fact that he’d just stumbled upon.

Since meeting Taako, since growing warm and gaining friends and even what felt like new family members, his habits connected to death had started to fade. No longer did he sit in on funerals simply to see the different rituals, no longer did he attempt to guess how objectively good or bad a person had been throughout their life, and no longer did he try to guess when a person would die.

He was becoming a living man again, through being a loving man. 

Instead of looking forwards to these small rituals, Kravitz had other things to look forward to.

He would look forward to a small bird that liked to chirp on his and Taako’s shared windowsill. 

Or a particularly beautiful flower that he could pick and bring home.

The smell of freshly-baked food.

The smile of a child out to play.

All of his family, all of his friends, gathered together to celebrate something as marvelous, something as miraculous, as love.

He’d been looking forward to the wedding for a long time, for a multitude of reasons. Now that his queen had explained the relationship between love and death, he’d been seeing it more and more.

Even within the wedding vows that Carey and Killian were sharing, they promised to love one another until the time of their death. He could tell that they meant it, too. Some people’s bonds reached further than he could have ever imagined. Taako and Lup shared a love that had started a hundred Planar Verses away and was unbreakable. He’d found his way into their bond along with Barry, and he saw every day that their love for one another was getting stronger. He felt loved as a brother by his own coworkers already, something he never had seen coming.

Weddings were odd, weren’t they?

They were a time to celebrate the love of two others, but this particular time, or perhaps simply in general, they were causing him to reflect on his relationship with Taako.

Taako’s comment hadn’t really helped, either.

It had been so long since Kravitz had last been to a wedding. It wasn’t often that wayward souls found their way to weddings, though he wouldn’t say it hadn’t happened in the past. (Typically, he tried to snag them before they could object to the unions.) 

It was truly something unique to witness.

It would be quite the thing to experience as well, he supposed.

He hadn’t thought about being married much when he was alive, or, if he had, it had been overshadowed by the fact that he’d pledged his life in service to the Raven Queen. 

Now, though, in death, he had found who seemed to be his soulmate. He had no idea whether or not they were real, though by the grace of some god they most likely were at least a suggestion in the threads of the universe. Now that he’d found Taako, he was truly considering marriage. Even before Taako had said something about it, he’d wondered what it would be like to be married.

To know he was intrinsically linked to him, that any time he thought of Taako he could never truly be alone, that they could share not only their house but also their lives. The thought filled him with such a warmth that he couldn’t bear to deal with it on his own.

He reached for Taako’s hand, smiling when he saw that Taako didn’t shy away from the touch. As he leaned his head on his shoulder, Kravitz smiled.

He was now warm all the way through. It had been weeks since he’d felt the chill of death come over him, even in his reaper form.

“I love you, Taako.” He whispered, as Merle embarked on an embarrassing story about his children, to the obvious protest of Mavis.

“I love you too, Kravitz.” Taako murmured dreamily.

“I know what you said earlier was an accident, but do you want to get married?” 

“Right now?” Taako giggled.

Kravitz flushed. “Well, not right  _ now,  _ of course, we’d need time and money to plan it… I’d want it to be perfect for you. But, uh, only if you’re okay with it. And I should probably ask the Raven Queen if it would be wrong, and Lup if it would be weird, and—”

“Babe. Stop worrying. Of course I will. Abso _ fucking _ lutely I will marry you. But right now two of our friends are having a kickass wedding and we should pay attention to it. For them.”

Kravitz was too ecstatic to say a word, unable to do much more than squeeze Taako’s hand and prevent a delighted noise from escaping his lips.

* * *

The moment Carey and Killian’s ceremony was over, Kravitz smooched Taako’s face off. 

“You know,” Taako laughed, “I was going to propose to you with a conductor’s wand.”

Kravitz paused. “You what?”

Taako kissed him softly. “You mentioned something one time about how you wanted to be a conductor back when you were alive. I figured, since you hadn’t freaked the fuck out when I told you about trains that you weren’t like mister Juicy Wizard, and that you meant a music conductor. I was going to make you one out of something nice and have Magnus engrave it.”

“Taako, that’s…”

“A thing only a loser would do? I know.” Taako glanced away from him. 

Kravitz shook his head, making sure Taako was looking him in the eyes before he responded.

“That is the kindest thing anyone has ever thought of doing for me.”

Taako stiffened, swallowing hard. “You mean that?”

“I do.”

He chuckled. “Pity I didn’t actually do it, then.”

“I’ll just act surprised.”

Taako grinned, kissing him again. “You’re ridiculous, babe.”

“I know. And you love me.”

“I sure as hell do.”

**Author's Note:**

> Hi!! I hope y'all enjoyed my first TAZ fic. I figured after the finale of Amnesty yesterday we might all need a little fluff in our lives. If you liked this, be sure and check out my other fics for the much, much smaller fandoms. Thanks for reading!!
> 
> (Once I figure out how to write the wedding between these two, I'll post an epilogue with it. If I don't post this now I don't know if I ever will.)


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